Ryback
In 2004, he became a contestant on $1,000,000 Tough Enough under his real name. He eventually became one of the eight finalists to appear on SmackDown! and the last to be voted off. Even though he did not win the competition, he impressed WWE officials enough for them to sign him to a contract. On February 16, 2010 during the final episode of ECW, Sheffield was announced as one of eight developmental wrestlers, called "rookies", to take part in the first season of WWE's new NXT show. Although Montel Vontavious Porter was originally said to be his mentor, or "pro", he was later replaced by William Regal. Sheffield made his NXT in-ring debut on the March 2 episode of NXT, where he teamed with Regal in a losing effort against Matt Hardy and Justin Gabriel. On the April 27 episode of NXT, Sheffield picked up his first victory with a win over Daniel Bryan. However, on May 11, despite an earlier win over Darren Young, in the first NXT elimination poll, Skip Sheffield was eliminated by the Pros. He was one of three eliminations behind Bryan and Michael Tarver, and commented that he will be back. On the June 7 edition of Raw, Sheffield along with the other NXT season one rookies, interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors as well as the announcing team before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment. On the June 14 edition of Raw the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts. The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new General Manager, who had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts. The following week, the group was named the Nexus. On the July 12 edition of Raw, The Nexus, without Darren Young, competed in their first match together, defeating John Cena in a six-on-one handicap match. The feud continued at SummerSlam, where Team WWE fought Nexus in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match. Sheffield eliminated both John Morrison and R-Truth from the match before becoming the third member of The Nexus to be eliminated. Ultimately, the Nexus lost the match. On August 18, during a live event in Honolulu, Hawaii, Sheffield broke his ankle in a tag team match with David Otunga against The Hart Dynasty. Sheffield has undergone extensive surgery since breaking his ankle. His third surgery was his last. About six months later, he went on working several dark matches prior Raw and Smackdown tapings. On the 3rd of December, Sheffield returned at a RAW house show as a heel defeating Alex Riley. He then made another non-televised appearance on December 5th Dark Event of Raw where he competed in a 41-Man Battle Royal which was won by Dolph Ziggler after sneaking back in. Skip Sheffield, working as a babyface, defeated Michael McGillicutty in the dark match before the 1/2/2012 RAW Supershow in Memphis, Tennessee. He then competed in a dark match prior to SmackDown tapings on January 6, 2012 using his Ryback gimmick, defeated Jimmy Uso. In a dark match with Percy Watson before Smackdown on 1/10/12, he returned to the "Skip Sheffield" gimmick, and defeated Watson. On January 17th he defeated Tyson Kidd using the Ryback gimick during Smackdown's dark match. On the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Reeves returned to television under his Ryback ring name as a face even though he wrestled as a heel in most of his dark matches, and becoming a member of the SmackDown brand, where over the following weeks, he would continuously squash jobbers, while other superstars watched backstage. At Extreme Rules, he made his pay-per-view debut as a singles competitor when he defeated two more jobbers (Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton) in nearly two minutes. On May 11 episode of SmackDown, Ryback defeated Heath Slater in a singles match. At Over The Limit, Ryback defeated Camacho in another squash match. Ryback defeated two more jobbers (Dan Delaney and Rob Grymesat) at No Way Out, then declared his intention to want to fight three men at once. On the June 22 tapings of Smackdown, Ryback defeated Two local athletes (Frank Venezia and Jared Wachtler) in a 2-on-1 Handicap Match. On the July 3 episode of SmackDown, he defeated Curt Hawkins to expand his winning streak. The next week, he beat both Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks in a competitive match. He then beat them again at WWE Money in the Bank. On August 6, Ryback faced Hawkins and Reks once again with a red eye. On the July 27 episode of SmackDown, Ryback began his first feud since returning to the main roster against Jinder Mahal, after Mahal lost via countout instead of continuing to wrestle. Ryback faced Mahal in a rematch on August 3 episode of SmackDown, but won via disqualification after Mahal struck him with a microphone. On the August 24 episode of SmackDown, Ryback finally defeated Mahal via pinfall and did so again on the September 3 episode of Raw. After defeating the Intercontinental Champion The Miz in a non-title match on the September 24 episode of Raw, Ryback confronted WWE Champion CM Punk at the end of the show after Punk attacked Mick Foley. On the next two episodes of Raw, Ryback again confronted Punk after he threatened Jim Ross during an "Appreciation Night" segment honoring Ross, and after he brawled with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. McMahon then declared that Punk would have to choose either Ryback or John Cena to defend the WWE Championship against at Hell in a Cell, and if Punk refused, McMahon would pick for him. On the October 15 episode of Raw, Cena willingly backed out of challenging Punk in favor of supporting Ryback as Punk's opponent at Hell in a Cell. On October 28 at the pay-per-view, Ryback's thirty-eight match undefeated streak was broken by Punk due to a low blow and fast count by referee Brad Maddox. After the match, Ryback would attack Maddox and proceed to perform the Shell Shocked to Punk on top of the cell. The following night on Raw, Ryback was named as the final member of Mick Foley's team to face CM Punk's team at Survivor Series. The following week, however, Ryback, along with John Cena, would be booked in a triple threat match for Punk's WWE Championship at the pay-per-view instead. On the November 13 episode of Raw, Ryback gained revenge against Maddox by squashing him in a match before throwing him into an ambulance, thus denying Maddox a chance at joining the WWE roster as a wrestler. On November 18 at Survivor Series, Ryback would be unsuccessful in winning the championship after being attacked by Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, who proceeded to powerbomb Ryback into the announce table, which allowed Punk to pin Cena and retain the title. The following night on Raw, Ryback was again attacked by Rollins, Ambrose, and Reigns before they powerbombed him through the announce table yet again after Ryback attempted to attack Punk while he was celebrating his year-long reign as WWE Champion. On the November 26 episode of Raw, Ryback demanded another opportunity at the WWE Championship, with Vickie Guerrero finally relenting and giving him the title match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. Later that night, Ryback attacked Punk with a ladder and chair before finally powerbombing him through a table. However, Punk would suffer a legitimate knee injury due to the attack, and would be unable to compete at the pay-per-view. As a result, the WWE Championship match was rescheduled for a later date and Ryback would instead be paired with the Tag Team Champions Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) to compete against The Shield in a six-man Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, where The Shield was victorious after pinning Bryan. The following night on Raw during the 2012 Slammy Awards, Ryback won three Slammy Awards for Newcomer of the Year, Crowd Chant of the Year, and #Trending Now. On the January 7, 2013 episode of Raw, Ryback again failed to capture the WWE Championship from Punk in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match after The Shield interfered and powerbombed Ryback through a table on top of the ring steps. On January 27 at the Royal Rumble, Ryback entered the Royal Rumble match as the thirtieth and final entrant and eliminated five superstars before being the last man eliminated by John Cena. Ryback would then resume his rivalry with The Shield on the February 4 episode of Raw when he teamed up with John Cena and Sheamus to attack the stable. This culminated in a six-man tag team match on February 17 at Elimination Chamber, where The Shield emerged victorious when Seth Rollins pinned Ryback for the win. The following night on Raw, Ryback and Sheamus teamed up with Chris Jericho to face The Shield in a rematch, but were again defeated. Ryback would then begin a feud with Mark Henry after several non-verbal confrontations that led to the two attacking Drew McIntyre with their finishing moves in an attempt to one-up each other. On the March 15 episode of SmackDown, Ryback defeated Henry via disqualification following interference from the Shield. Afterwards, Henry would perform the World Strongest Slam to Ryback three times in a row. Ryback and Henry competed in a Bench Press Challenge on the March 29 episode of SmackDown, where Ryback tied Henry at 53 reps after Henry choked him after with the weight. On April 7 at WrestleMania 29, Ryback was defeated by Henry in a singles match. The following night on Raw, Ryback saved WWE Champion John Cena from a post-match assault by Mark Henry before attacking Cena himself, turning tweener in the process. The following week on Raw, Ryback explained his attack on Cena as stepping out from Cena's shadow and getting revenge for Cena not having his back against The Shield; Ryback got a measure of revenge later that night, by allowing The Shield to attack Cena. After becoming the number one contender to the WWE Championship, Ryback would continue his feud with Cena by attacking him on several occasions while also having confrontations with the Shield. Ryback received his title opportunity in a Last Man Standing match on May 19 at Extreme Rules, however, the match ended in a no contest after Ryback rammed Cena and himself into the electric backdrop at the top of the ramp. The following night on Raw, Ryback entered the arena in an ambulance and challenged Cena to an Ambulance match for the WWE Championship at WWE Payback. The following week on Raw, Cena accepted Ryback's challenge but announced that their match would be a 3 Stages of Hell match with the first stipulation being a Lumberjack match, the second being a Tables match, and the third being the Ambulance match. On June 16 at the pay-per-view, Ryback won the Lumberjack match but went on to lose the Tables and Ambulance match and his second shot at the WWE Championship. Ryback then began feuding with Chris Jericho, which led to a singles match on July 14 at Money in the Bank, where Ryback emerged victorious. In August, Ryback debuted a new gimmick, where he began bullying various backstage workers. Also as part of the gimmick, Ryback would back away from fighting opponents of equal size and taking advantage of smaller and vulnerable opponents. At Night of Champions, Ryback aligned himself with Paul Heyman by helping him defeat CM Punk. Ryback after aligning with Heyman adopted a hypocritical gimmick of being an intimidating bully, but would claim others were themselves bullies and that he had a hatred of bullying. His victims included CM Punk and then a local competitor, whom Ryback easily defeated in a match. On October 6 at WWE Battleground, Ryback was defeated by Punk in a singles match. Category:Slammy Award Winners Category:Current Superstar